French officials say the convicted terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal has launched another hunger strike in prison, where he is serving a life sentence.

Officials say the Venezuelan, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, stopped eating last week to protest being kept in isolation, along with body searches and lack of access to his prison bank account.

He last held a hunger strike in May to protest being moved to a new cell.

Ramirez is imprisoned at a high-security prison in Fresnes, a southern suburb of Paris.

Arrested in Sudan in 1994, he gained international notoriety for a string of deadly attacks in the 1970s and 1980s.